30 Days to Design Your Portrait Business

Lesson 31 of 53

Day 17: Packaging Your Product

30 Days to Design Your Portrait Business

Lesson 31 of 53

Day 17: Packaging Your Product

Lesson Info

Day 17: Packaging Your Product

All right, we're gonna talk about packaging your product in this segment, and I have I've said, you guys, you know, this is the first presentation of the images to your client, so we do want to make sure that they're beautifully wrapped and especially when it's time to, you know, take your business to the left to the next level, and we've been educating our clients on the value of what we do in the value of their finished products, and so we want to present them beautifully, and here is just an image here of some of the small packages here or that we have in the studio we've got, you know, bags and boxes and bows and tags, and I'm big on tagging things and using stickers using labels, because that way I don't have to buy personalized packaging, which is, you know, four times thie expense, and so we're going to go now first through a video, just packaging up some small things in the studio. Today, we're gonna talk about packaging. Packaging is one of those things that a lot of times in ...

the beginning when you're first starting it's hard to really know how to get things package, especially when you're ready to step it up and offer some new products like framing albums, that kind of thing. You know how do we package without growing broke you know what we invest in what we have on stock and what do we just pick up? I do want to mention that a lot of the labs now have custom boutique packaging and so that's an easy way when you're starting to just add that in but make sure you are adding it into your cost of sale so that you're not eating that uh that cost but that is one way to offer really nice packaging for your prints and your products without having to invest in a lot of stock peace is a lot of bags and boxes and the folders for the smaller prints I invested a lot of packaging for our larger prints but I have a lot of room and we do a lot of it and so I don't necessarily suggest that when you're first starting but I'm going to show you both what I am doing now after fifteen, sixteen years in the business and also talk about a few things that I did in the beginning to save money but when it comes to packaging really think about that first presentation that your clients have of your product a lot of times we're delivering it packaged and maybe you're all on location and so you're actually delivering it to your clients or they're picking it up at your home studio however there first receiving their product from you the packaging has a lot to do with their first perceived ideas of what's inside I always like to think about the christmas parties that you go to where you can go in grab a president if you're number one and the number two can take my president or they can go get another one and you play this game and everybody stealing and the ones that they steal the presence that they want are the ones that have the most beautifully wrapped because we have this idea that what's inside is going to be the best and the best wrapped gift and so think about that when you're packaging for your clients you wanted to be a beautiful presentation you want them to get excited about what's inside I'm ready to package up a high school senior order and I've done a little bit of it already but some of the ways that I package up our smaller pieces are you know here's a five by seven and I'm gonna go ahead and put two of them together I always want to face the prince together when we're putting more than one into a folder or a box and these folders I get from marathon press we get also the little wallet boxes from them as well that tie in to the colors and I could just put those in the folder fold it up and then we're going to tie it with a bow we're going to put a sticker on it, and then we're going to add it's hag to finish it off. I've got those five by sevens in a folder now and then labels are really great way to personalize for your product line in your brand. So for high school seniors, we've we've got everything personalizing branded with the brown, orange red and a light blue I've got that light blue and everything on my product line so that's, what ties everything together and things like the folders and the wallet boxes and some of those things that cost us a little more that we're investing in and stocking, I can have those match throughout the product lines and then tie everything together with ae specific branding for the product line. So this is our real seniors line, so I'm gonna go ahead and take this senior sticker and just seal up my folder and then we've got it branded there for the senior line and then I'm gonna finish it off with a bow, so I'll just tie that up and then we've got our high school seniors five by sevens packaged up and those air going to go into our bag and in her bag I've got another large, sicker that's gonna also be our rial seniors brand. And a stickers in these tags airway to really customize your look and your packaging without having to invest a lot of money instead of having thes bags already printed with my logo which would be a huge investment I can just purchase the labels and I can customize them myself so I love that we've got labels for all of our different product lines that keeps it inexpensive and it's a way that you know, we can invest in some of the products that we want to that costs a little bit more money but save some money on some other things that we're doing instead of having the boxes themselves printed and customized and have our logo on them. So were we finished up the senior bag here with another tag that real senior tag? And then I've got one of the high school seniors wallets on here and the way we do that and and customize those for our seniors is with a c I I can order a sheet of wallets where every single wallet is different and so by placing all of our orders on one day of the week, I can line up the wallets from the different clients and then I've got those two really personalize and add to the bags another thing that you can do is always make your wallet orders a less number that the client receives than what you actually get from the lab so for example while let's come on a sheet of eight so from the lab if we order four sets we're going to get thirty two wallets on my menu it says thirty wallets for the client and so I've got an extra two so that's another way that you can go ahead and personalize your bags just by using one of those extra wallets and then you still have one for a sample box that you might wantto throw a bunch of wallets and for people to look through the's wallet box has come to us unassembled from marathon press and so I'm gonna go ahead and put it together and it just folds up just like a little box easy to dio and once you've done it once you could do it in a couple seconds and it's gonna tuck in there when we're done I am going to go ahead and brand this one with another senior sticker and we do have the stickers for all of our product lines for lauren or from studio for riel seniors and for real kids are different product lines weddings get packaged completely differently so we're not even gonna go there right now right now that's ready for thes wallets and I've got two sets of thirty to go in the box and I'm gonna go ahead and put those in and that's how we package them is two sets of thirty in each box and you could put each one in a in a different box, but most of our senior girls get eight sets of wallets and so that's quite a lot of boxes if you're not going to double them up but you can decide they're what you'd like to do, I'm gonna go ahead and put these together we also on the back of each of our wallets we are putting a label that has the year and then has our website on it so that's going to go on the back there and I'm going to add those two that box and close that up and then that'll go in our bag and be ready for our senior and now I've got one more senior order to finish up the small prints here and this one we've got we didn't have a cz many small print, so I've got his two folders and eight by ten and a five by seven here in a box and with those same folders and labels gonna box that up that also has a label on it got a label everything and for our senior girl we used the brown tool to tie and for a senior boy I'm gonna just use regular ribbon and we could just leave the box just like that it's very manly but since we know mom's probably going to be picking it up, I'm gonna go ahead and put some ribbon on it and we'll just tied up together in our colors and then we will be adding that this one to a bag a cz well that'll be labeled and then I'm gonna add his wallet to it as well to personalize it yeah okay now we finish that up and that looks cute for mom so I'm gonna add uh and his his boxes here to his package and then we've got some tissue that I'm gonna add to both on just kind of q t those up where's the boy where's the girl and there we have those ready to go and I can look well we need to add a wallet his bag to um because I want to be able to look right away when these are ready for pickup and be able to see whose they are right away so we'll add the boys while it here but that's how those air going toe look finished and now we will wrap their large prints s o that was wrapping up all the small print to get to see how all that happens and as you can tell I liked the stickers they did go on everything one of the things that I did before I had the space really or the money that I wanted to invest in keeping the bag's in the boxes and some of those things was I went after every season whether it was christmas or easter or halloween even and I would just buy bags anything that was my studio colors as long as it was blue and brown, I grabbed it and you know, a lot of times you can get things at seventy five percent off and even ninety percent off I love hobby lobby for their sale, you know, items and just waiting for those times to go get ninety percent off and I still do that sometimes, especially with christmas bags because I like at christmas time to package are things in christmassy bags and even the christmas tissue and so I every year will go after christmas and buy up everything that I can that is discounted and then we can still make it personal with our labels and so, you know, think about that as well if you're not ready to make the investment and some of those pieces but still want to make things really nice for your clients, the next we're gonna see a little video of wrapping the larger prints and that is something I know for studios a lot of times it's it's difficult to know what do I do now that I want a frame and do these nice things? How do I package them? So we're gonna show you that for this signor client she's got four that are going to be hung together and I'm gonna show you what we do for that first of all, I'm going to add over the image and this is framed and backed and we use a local framer to finish things for us for many years we did things right in house but I don't enjoy framing and now we've got somebody that's just around the corner and he actually gives us a nice little discount for finishing up our frames for us so we just take him right over there so there's a grouping for these and uh the way I start with this is I'm going to just add the peace right from the lab that's going to protect the print so that's going to come right in your lab order and it's going to go there and it's you know it's not pretty but it's protective and it's fine every once in a while you'll get something that is, you know, not usable from the lab he might ripped the tape off of it wrong and not be able to use it. So just make sure that if you're going to do this and protect your frame prince that you go ahead and save the ones that you're not using for whatever reason and then you've got a little stack of them to be able to use if you do happen to ruin one but that's it I'm going to start with that and then we've got framed corners and when you get frames from your frame company most of the time they're gonna have frame corners on them so you can just repurpose those the network's great we do have extra frame corners in the studio that come from you line they're inexpensive and we just get a stack of them that we can fold those up and have those nice new corners on there they come and they're actually perforated so we can do different wits of frames and so I'm just gonna fold this one up I've done the other two I cheated a little canda so I know that I'm going to go to the second gold on that and we'll just add that to our next corner here we go and a third and the fourth corner so that's going to protect those corners for us and again you don't have to invest though in those right away you're gonna have those from your frame company so just repurpose them and that's totally fine now next what we're going to dio as we're going teo bubble wrap this and sometimes I don't choose to bubble wrap sometimes they do it really depends on how far the client is traveling or if they're going to ship it of course I'm gonna bubble wrap it then this client happens to be coming from about three hours away to pick up their portrait ce and so I am going to bubble wrap it for them so that it's nice and finished for the ride home so let's go ahead and do this our bubble wrap is also from you line pretty much everything that we have this just a standard packaging supply that's going to come in like large rolls and bulk is going to be from you lines that's going to air bubble wrap our corrugated cardboard which I'll show you in a minute those frame corners we've got some shrink wrap and those kinds of things and that's all coming from you line the pretty stuff is coming from either a c I or marathon press so let's wrap this one with bubble wrap and the bubble wrap from you line that I get there several different kinds but it comes perforated at every twelve inches so you can find the right size for your prince I don't keep in multiple sizes so we've got this with that's probably twenty four inches and it comes in a giant roll so beware if you decide to order something like this that you've gotta have the space to store it but we're going to use this and I'll show you on one of our even larger frames how we just double that up so we're going to do that but we're going to go ahead and put the bubble wrap around this eleven by fourteen when you finish wrapping you can put it another one of those labels on it or you could just put a piece of tape and that's fine too and then we're going to finish it off so that it's pretty because we want to be pretty when they pick it up, we're going to finish that off with corrugated cardboard now you can just wrap with corrugated cardboard or something simple like that if you're covering with something covering the print, we don't glass most of our prints, so we want to protect them in some way and then with those frame corners weaken, just do the corrugated rap if somebody's just picking apple, we're delivering to somebody in a lot of times if I deliver to someone I want to present it like this with the corrugated raft, but I actually let them on wrap it and I take the corrugated rat back home with me because I can either repurpose it or I can chunk it if I need to, but I don't want to leave all that packaging with them, so it is to be pretty but it's also to protect and so you know, think about that as well. Whether you're delivering or if you're dropping off, you're gonna want to leave it as it is, but if you're delivering and their unwrapping don't leave it all with them, so we're going now wrap this in our corrugated cardboard and I'm like, I am going to turn this print upside down so that it's based in to our cardboard put some wraparound this, um, we do have some rap that we use for various reasons you line again, somebody just place this bubble wrap right in here and wrap around it because that's going to keep it all closed for me on and get lots of packaging happening today. So this will work hope you don't hate that noise not quite as bad as shock ward. I'm just going to wrap that in this sticks to itself, and so I don't need to do much other than just that that's going to keep those ends tucked in for me. All right? So I've got that in there face down, I'm gonna bring the ends together and then we're gonna tie one of our big bows around this. All right? Now we're tying our big bo around and I'm gonna get those already to teo and there we have it now I've got three more of this size to dio, and then when we're done, I'll have those all tied together as well. Right now we've got all four, those pieces package deaf, and I'm gonna add my tag. I've done my hole punch, and with the tool, I could actually just slide these tags on, and I don't even have to ty it again, they're just going to stick so I like the tool a lot, so I like when we have girls uh so that's done now those four pieces are ready to go and those are going to go out into our waiting room okay, so that was a little bit larger and then, um we've got one more little segment here at the at the production area in the studio and will show you that this is one of our high school senior clients that came in and with every high school senior session we offer a free family portrait session and I love doing that because it's people that we've worked with before they already kind of know the deal and it also allows us to answer any objections about something that the client has already done for past seniors or maybe hasn't done yet for other kids and you know, we get that answer sometimes I don't want to create a shrine did this kid because I've got these little ones or or whatever the case may be, this happens to be a middle girl and I did her older brothers senior pictures two years ago, so they've been through the system with me, which is great and you know, there weren't any questions that I didn't have those objections, but they're also great to work with those kinds of clients as well for the family portrait sessions because he have done business with them and so they came in for both of those sessions were wrapping both of those sessions up right now and then you're going to get to see their reaction when they come in to see everything. So we've got thes packaged and ready to go, we're going to have their larger pieces out on easels we've got those smaller prints and packages and folders and then in bags and everything's ready to go for them when they come to pick it up working with the family that we just package has been super fun because they aren't worried about being all matchy matchy for all the kids they did something different for the older boy who graduated, and now I'm something special and different for the middle daughter, and this is the third son who is a sophomore in high school, but they didn't want to do something nice of him and for him, even though he's not going to be graduating for another two years and so that's a really easy thing to do and teo mentioned to your clients at the senior session when they're talking about what they're gonna hang of each kid and do they wanted to match? And you know you can talk about doing something really special for the high school senior and then doing something else for the other kids when you do they're free family portrait session in the fall so this is going to be wrapped for the youngest and I am going tio after the client comes in they're going to see their main portrait's on easels when they walk in through the door and so afterwards I'm gonna package the other campus along with this one and we're just gonna put it in one of our large rice studio bags and this's a gigante windbag but but we love these bags and this is a great way to package up your campus pieces and even framed pieces you can put these inside of these bags and these we do get customized from rice and you know they're not cheap and all of this you have to make sure that you're building it in into your cost so just make sure to be thinking about that and, you know don't just get excited about the packaging and doing something beautiful in that way without considering what you're charging people for their product. Now we have everything cut and by that I mean we've got several large prints that the client's going to be picking up and we've got everything waiting for them out on easels I'm about to go take this one out so that's out there for them but we've got the frame corners ready to go we've got our bubble wrap cut to size the size that we need to wrap it are cardboard and even our bow so everything is ready to roll, and we've got those pieces for each one of the large pieces will be presenting so that they come in, they can see them right away and it went over them make sure everything's okay, and then we can get them packaged up for them quickly by having everything ready to roll and help them get them out in the car, package him up. The last thing I wanted to share with you is something that we add to the back of all of our prince before they're framed and you guys saw framed pieces already finished, and so I wanted to make sure that we took a step back and you got to see our certificate of authenticity, and this isn't something that goes on the back of every single one of our prince, and I sign this and this is instead of signing the front. I know some of you may sign the front of your images, and I used to do that back in the day because it was like the artist's signature, you know, all that good stuff, but it kind of moved away from it as I ruined a lot of prints because I don't have a great signature, and then I did it digitally for a while. And then I got away from that, too, because even though it was my signature still in my mind and it's just a personal thing, it's not right or wrong. If you sign your prints and you love doing that, please continue to do that. But I stopped doing it because in my mind and the way I grew up, it felt a little bit like olin mills. When I started doing it, I did it because I was told teo, I guess, and then it just, you know, just kept feeling that way to me that it was that's what it felt like to me because that's, how I grew up, you know, that I grew up in a windmill studio is not in private portrait studios, so I add the certificate of authenticity to make it that artist print sign it data. It tells them how it was finished for lifelong durability that it's going to last forever, and then it also says a little bit of something about my copyright. It just says that lori nordstrom studio is proud to hold the copyright of this image as set forth by the united states copyright law. Eso how's that for you, and then it says, please enjoy this custom original portrait created just for you, so I kind of like the finish of that our clients do know that this goes on their prints but of course if it's frame it's going to be covered up but that's okay it's archiving and its archiving that original work so that to me still makes that kind of that artist peace without signing the front of it so that's just my version we do this uh just on a sticker again you can tell I love stickers but this is going to go on the back of the print and I'll go ahead and put that on for you and turn that over I'm gonna add that certificate and then I will sign and date that all right? So now you've got to see all of that and erica just said no wonder you have thirty minutes down for a packaging on your on your list and you know and and I was walking guys through that obviously it's you know, it really doesn't take that long each one of those segments we wash was, you know, five, six minutes so we're wrapping large, large prints, large things and so you know, it's just a matter of making sure everything's beautifully presented and getting them ready to go and making sure everything is ready for getting in the car and being protected and all that good stuff and so one last little quick video and I packaged up there in these videos a high school senior a session that we also photographed the family session and we normally do that later we photographed the high school senior and then you know in the fall we're going to do that free family portrait session but this family came from about three hours away and so we plan to both of those sessions on the same day I photographed the high school senior in the morning they went to lunch together they came back and we did the family session so they're picking up everything what as they come in here okay so that was fine that was fun for me that's the first time I actually have seen all that uh so that was that was pretty cool for me too and and of course I love those clients and we love having everything ready for them on easels when they come in you know a lot of times it's not two giant family portrait ce and you know two giant senior portrait's plus the younger kids you know but we always want to have those couple of pieces if if this family here was coming into the studio to pick up their portrait I probably would only have this one main piece out on an easel for them when they come it came in and everything else would be packaged up for them so you know we want to keep it simple and easy but they had several large pieces to thirty by forties and two twenty four by thirty six and I believe it was and so we wanted to have all that out as a you know just a really nice first impression when they walk through the door so should we take some questions I think that'd be fantastic let's start with one from here in the audience I know that everyone has questions it's kind of fun somebody dio I saw a lot of canvas clusters so I mean is it like an epic fail to put the campus cluster toe leave the campus clusters in the box like can I just open it and have the big one on the easel and then just leave the other ones in the rat box or you think I should actually package them individually if they're coming in an unmarked boxes at how yours countess okay if they're coming in on mark box and even ours from the lab I can there's one little sticker I have to pull off and from a c I there's no marking on the boxes so you know yes it's perfectly appropriate and even for that like for somebody that's traveling you know these pieces the majority of our framed pieces so it's a little bit different but the canvas yes, I could have left that in the box one of the things that I don't like about that is that I don't get to take it out and make sure everything is perfect before I give it to the client and so I would suggest maybe repackaging it in the same box but you also want to take a little bit of extra care whether it's putting that certificate of authenticity on the back or tying a bow around it or putting your label on it. You get the big labels and stick it on there and personalize it at least in some way another thing that you could dio with those boxes is just throw in some confetti or, you know, depending on what type of session is, make it fun and, you know, you could throw up a couple little cards and they're something that maybe if somebody buys a canvas, you know that you're going to buy one of those eight up sheets of wallets where everyone is different and just put in eight images from for their sessions, you can throw him in there and personalize it and make it fun for them to unwrap. And so, you know, there's there's so many different ways. I mean, I just showed you what I'm doing but there's so many ways that you can q t up your packages and really make it a fun experience for clients when they're coming in and you guys saw somebody in the chat room was asking about the colored glass jars that we're behind me, I've got those candy jars that looked like andy, but it's really crinkly paper and so we use those and I've got him in all different colors because we use them for different things that we do in the studio and whether it's a little gift bag that's waiting for somebody when they come in for their senior session or a lot of times from our order appointments for high school seniors, I'll have a little box sitting for them with their favorite candy in it and, you know, maybe some fun little trinket e item, and so we'll put that crinkly stuff in there, sometimes we throw it in the bags or in a box for but putting in jewellery and, you know, some of our smaller pieces, so we just have lots of fun things and that kind of stuff I always look for on sale, I'm always, you know, either waiting for the sales from the companies that I use and you've got all those resource is in your workbook, but I mean, they're waiting for those two go on sale or going after those holidays and just buying up the seventy five percent off stuff I like the phrase q t up got tio tio everything you d'oh all right, so we have ah, few more questions coming in, and this one is just kind of technical ethel nine, four, five so when the client comes to pick up their order, do you open everything back up and show them or do they just take it and leave? So exactly how does that work when they come in? Yeah, well, we would have their main portrait on an easel and everything else wrapped up, and then I will ask them, do you want to go ahead and and open everything so you can see everything before you leave? And ninety nine percent of our clients say, oh, no, I want to take it all home and unwrap it with my family because it's wrapped, you know, it's like it's like christmas, and so they get to take it home and have that experience with their family of ewing and eyeing, you know, with everything when they get there. Every once in a while, I'll have somebody that yes wants to go through and inspect everything, but pretty much if you've got it packaged up it's, not a prerequisite. As long as you've gone through, you made sure everything is perfect and, you know, they'll be excited to go out the door with their gifts. I'm gonna go one more here really quick, and then we'll jump back into the audience we've got jim oh, photo and the photo both want to know, do you mount all of your images, no matter how side how big even the small ones and then if yes, how do you handle the question? Well, I'd like to put them in my own album or give them to the grand parents will put him in a frame. Yes, I do have everything price for being mounted textured lester coated and that's how everything is presented if someone tells me specifically that they want to put something in album, no problem, I don't need to mount it also a turn that way, but the prices are going to change. Laurie, I know that you guarantee olive your prince so may or may not be relevant, but do you have them sign anything saying that they at least picked them up in good condition so that you know that you delivered them in good condition? I really don't. And you know, by this time, by the time we've gone through this process, we have spent a lot of time together. We've invested a lot of time together. They've invested a lot of time in their session by sending me those snapshots of their walls done. They've done a consultation call with me, they've laid out their clothes on their couch, there's someone to see what they're wearing. You know, we've we've spent a lot of time together they've also coming for their session and I have told them how amazing they are and how wonderful your family is and how I love seeing them interact together you know we've got this relationship going and so for me it's a little bit of a trust thing and you know, I don't expect for my clients to go home and you know, damage something and then call me and tell me it was my fault if they did I would fix it and I guarantee it to that extent if somebody went home and they were hanging a portrait on the wall and they've dropped a frame and it cracked in half I'm gonna replace it for um just because I feel like it's that important to make sure that we're we are really guaranteeing everything for our clients any more in the studio yes go ahead so I know this is not super exciting like is good as the other questions but on the wall it's I love the idea of that little label on the back because I think I just hate the idea of ever putting my logo on the front because then it says kelly setups and people are like well that his name is set up you know? So I loved the idea of putting the label on the back can you expand on that? It looked just like a plena ll label avery labels and that that's holidays is just an avery label sheet and we've just got it set up as a you know, inward or whatever I think is word where you can choose your avery label and set it up and we just print those out which makes it really nice because it's you know you're not investing a lot of money in it it's easy and I can change it up when I need to for the year or even sometimes for a special events will say like happy valentine's fortune photo dot com and dear and that'll be that'll go on they're like, you know, they're valentine's uh well it's all right, we have another question from two folks online trey everett and debo back when you were talking about framing in those products did you say you don't use glass in your frames? And they both were asking again why we hardly glass anything anymore when I started doing it and you know, back in the day we of course glass everything cause that's what you did, especially if you're mad ng ifyou're mad ng things traditionally they need to be glassed because you've got to protect that matt, but we're text a ring and lester coding our prints so they're protected in that way and when we first started doing it, we presented it as a museum presentation you know, this is you don't go into an art gallery and see glass on art, and so we presented in that way now, it's it's kind of accepted, and it may be different in different areas. I'm not sure, but we don't. We have rarely somebody say, well, can I get that glass? And everything I see in the studio is not blast, so we don't fantastic little bit related to this one. D d c m says thank you for sharing how to properly package your products when you're pricing in the packaging when you're including it in your pricing, do you do it for every product? Separately, for example, in the price of one eight by ten print, the packaging is price stands of the client, then orders thirty prints they pay the packaging times thirty and the total order price well, that's correct because of your pricing it for that one eight by ten and so it's already gonna be built into that eight by ten price. So if they buy thirty it's already built in in that way and she missed when we did that right way calculated out all of our cost for individual products, and when you're doing that, I on my small prints have about three dollars, just kind of as a ballpark into our package cost and so that's you know that's where of course there's maurine the larger prints but, you know, in some of the smaller prints were gonna package together if they ordered thirty I'm probably going to put at least two and maybe for per folder and so I'm going to save money I'm gonna make more money but because they are you know, each one is priced for that package cost. I do have a question from the photo um who would like some clarification on what you mean when you say you texture your photos and what kind of textured I know we see texture meaning when you're working in photo shop but yes, what do you mean by textured and coded prince? Okay, and that that's actually an option from the labs and any professionally lab pretty much that you will order from you'll have that as a finishing option and the finishing options are going to be a couple different kinds of texture I used linen texter, that's just my favorite and you guys that are here you can go and touch and feel these these air ordered exactly how I order in the studio and it's it just gives it a little bit of texture like real text or not photoshopped texture and so it's like if you can imagine like a canvas print, you know how a campus print has that texture to it and so that just it just gives it that one little step up of look and feel and so we do the linen texture as a finishing option and then another finishing option is luster coding and that's just going to give it that final lester coating from the lab that's going to protect it and we can tell our clients you could just take a dust cloth to these or even a feather duster that's gonna clean them so that any other questions in here okay, we've got one from sunny day who wonders whether you ever have photos delivered or do families always picked them up personally if you do have them delivered how do you make sure they get there safely? Yes way definitely we we do it always I deliver some things personally or one of my staff does we package and ship things and we have clients come and pick them up so it's it all just depends on what's going on with the client but we do have I have one of my girls that actually lives into blaine. And so if it's a des moines client we might line up a couple of deliveries on an afternoon and she'll take those in and so as faras protecting them it's that bubble wrap and you know that finishing and we just want to make sure everything is protected before we put it in the car for transportation and then if we are delivering it we take that packaging back with us we don't leave it with the client tohave all that trash you know and some of the week even repurpose when they ran back it's already cut for certain sizes and that's the way a lot of times in the studio when I get these big giant rolls of bubble wrap in these big giant rules of corrugated cardboard well go ahead and I'm saying we someone goes ahead and cuts those for particular sizes and then we just roll it up and put a ribbon around it with the size labeled on it so they're ready to go so it's really not even taking that much time we're actually packaging because we've got you know, a little box of different sizes that are already ready to roll all right we got one more here since we're talking about the final product you're handing to the client what's the timeline from that initial call or maybe the session to this delivery well and it's after the order so that the caught the time from the order to the final pickup we tell our clients four to six weeks but it's typically thirty five we like to get it to them sooner than later but I tell them four to six weeks because then it's a surprise when I call them in three weeks and one of the things that you'll find as you start raising your prices and you're charging people more and they're buying, you know, upscale things, and they're buying interior design, and they kind of expect for it to take a while, and I've actually had people in the past where I've turned things around for quickly and it's almost a disappointment, you know, and so it's interesting, and I will tell people, you know, sometimes if they placed a large order and we've got several frame pieces plus several smaller pieces, I'll let them know you're smaller pieces. Well, we'll be ready in about two to three weeks and those larger pieces that are being framed or we'll take, you know, five to six weeks, that is great, okay, we've got one from s w p who says when clients don't purchase frames with really large prince, how do you present those? And we just wrap those if they don't buy frames, which they better by frames from a way I really, really want to sell a finished product for the wall and so it's canvases or framed prints, but if somebody came in and they just bought the large print, it would be pretty much in that same way we would do the corrugated cardboard with the bow and, you know, and just finish it off that way, just one half frame corners all right, so I have a question. Of course, we have an international audience. And this is from lo la graffiti who I believe is saying that here she works in london. What would you recommend to somebody if they have clients or even part of the client's family that is on the other side of the world? Say, in australia or the us working in london, would you just sell those people the digital files? Or would you do these companies ship internationally? What would you recommend? Companies will ship internationally? Absolutely. And there are several companies now. You know, if you're if you're not interested in framing things on your own, lots of people aren't and that's okay, you can use a local framer or you can use your lab. And so many labs now are offering finished brain pieces. So you not only order your print, you order your frame and it comes back. Teo, completely done. You can also have them drop ship. And so you can have these nice things. Nice pieces done and have a drop shipped and have the lab take the responsibility for sending it internationally. And so, you know, yes, I wouldn't let that be an excuse to not sell finished product. And you know, certainly there are some cases where a digital file may be appropriate for somebody that you know overseas, but if they're wants if they want to finish product from you, there are ways to get it to them. I know a c I r lab they I mean they offer sixty, eighty I don't remember but a lot of different frame options custom frame options that you can do you send in order your print order, your frame comes back to you done you don't have to mess with any of it and so it's just another one of those things that you definitely want to build that into your cost of sale because they are going to charge you a little bit more teo get it off finished and done for you uh also my frame company that I use ah handcrafted framing they will also you can drop ship your prints from the lab to them. You can also do this with wild sorbet and but you can drop ship them there, they'll finish him for you for about fifteen dollars for the large prints you're just going to build that into your cost they'll send them back to you completely did love it so laurie, I have one final question from myself what is the download of the day we got today? Seventeen you're going to get that certificate of authenticity that you can then, uh, personalize. If you'd like to, you can change it up a little bit. It's gonna be a layer psd file and has all the wording there for you so you can get those printed. We just get prints are labels from a c. I on those get him, I sign him and stick him on the print.

Class Description

The strongest portrait photography businesses have one thing in common: a dedicated, strategic plan for artistic and financial success. Join creativeLIVE instructor Lori Nordstrom as she goes through 30 Days to Design Your Portrait Business, an intensive course that will give you the step-by-step tools you need to survive and thrive as a portrait photographer.

Over 30 days, you will work with Lori to develop a plan of action for marketing, branding, and pricing that will keep your clients happy and your business growing. Lori will outline the lighting, posing, and shooting skills she uses to make sure clients come away from a session with photos they’ll love. During each daily segment, Lori will discuss the topics covered in her 72-page workbook (included with purchase).

By the end of this course, you’ll have the concrete skills you need to attract clients, build a successful, satisfying business, and deliver stunning results every time.

fcaisp

This course is amazing! Lori covers so many essential things to have a successful photography business. She goes through everything in a very methodical way. I also appreciate ALL the free stuff she gave to help make my business successful. I also love how she shared how she gives back in her community and worldwide. Thanks Lori!

a Creativelive Student

I cannot say enough GREAT things about this course!!! I've been in business for over 10 years now, but still need to check in on the business side of things periodically. This class reminds us just how much fun marketing, sales, and planning can be. It has rejuvenated my passion for the BUSINESS side of this business. In fact, I'm so inspired by what Lori has to say, I think I will recommend this class to my COMPETITORS down the street. We will all be better for it and the industry will be better too! This is perfect for those just starting out AND seasoned pros :)

a Creativelive Student

I have loved so many creativeLIVE courses but I have to say this has been THE BEST for me. Lori thank you so much for sharing your wealth of knowledge! I am feeling more confident and excited about moving forward and making my photography a real business finally. I have been crippled by insecurity and fear and with this course I feel like I have finally been given the ok and the KNOWLEDGE to do what I need to do. Thank you!